The City of Hillsboro (OR), which plans to reduce municipal facility energy use by 60% by 2030, overcame inconsistent access to capital for efficiency projects by setting up a Sustainability Revolving Fund that has achieved an estimated $24,000 in annual cost savings.
King County created the Fund to Reduce Energy Demand (FRED), a financing tool where the county budget office issues bonds and provides loans to county divisions for equipment upgrades to reduce energy use, and resulting utility bill savings are then used to pay back the bonds, resulting in a neutral or positive cash flow.
adidas created the greenENERGY Fund to facilitate investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects; the company approved funding for 61 projects, investing $10.8 million and achieving a 29% internal rate of return across the project portfolio.
Internal funding refers to the use of an organization’s existing financial resources to pay for energy efficiency projects, rather than seeking external financing.
Large organizations are no strangers to the paid-from-savings retrofit model marketed by major ESCos, but increasingly, small organizations are searching for technical and financial support in pursuing these projects.
The Billion Dollar Green Challenge encourages colleges, universities, and other nonprofit institutions to invest a combined total of $1 billion in self‐managed green revolving funds that finance energy efficiency improvement. Helpful tools include an Implementation Guide , case studies, white papers, and sample documents, and implementation strategies for campus Green Revolving Funds.
Better Buildings Challenge partners Cleveland Clinic and Ascension Health, along with JDM Associates, presented at CleanMed 2017 on best practices in financing sustainability in the healthcare sector. For context, check out the Beat Blog post.
At the 2016 Better Buildings & Better Plants Summit, healthcare sustainability experts from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, Cleveland Clinic, and Bon Secours participated in a session on the benefits and practicalities of green revolving funds.
While written with a focus on airports, this report offers detailed information on planning and launching a green revolving fund, answers frequently asked questions, and includes case studies that are applicable to universities, local governments, healthcare institutions, and a range of other sectors. It is a co-publication of Rocky Mountain Institute, Cadmus Group, Sustainable Endowments Institute, and Frasca & Associates.
